Advice | Adults only but families with underage children still booking

[Yadira22]

Hello All,

hope you are well. 

Concern: 

Due to my flat not being suitable for children and my insurance policy restricting me from hosting anyone under the age of 18y/o. 

Putting into place “reasonable restrictions” on my listings and acted upon the “my space, my rules” (refer to photos taken from airbnb’s website for further content) logic stated by Airbnb on their own website. 

Requesting to book when you plan to bring children and your listing states “no children less than 18y/o at time of booking”- then surely as a host you should be able to cancel this reservation without being penalised or having your statistics affected.

Issue: 

From the last 10 reservation enquiries I have received, about 4/5 have been with children. Therefore I need to decline and this decreases my “reservation acceptance” and therefore listing position. 

When contacting airbnb about this- seeking advice on how to best remedy/avoid these situations, I got the following response:

More or less insinuating that not accepting children is “discriminatory” and “ageist”.

If this were the case then an “adult only resort” would be discriminatory and/or ageists and their existence would be legally questionable.

Remedy: 

-When a host says no one under 18 years old- please go with what they are saying. 

- allow families to search for family friendly listings only , will save both time and money. 

- do not point fingers and call out hosts as being ageist when they have set clear restrictions and expectations yet guests are too lazy as to read the listing. 

I don’t really need advice but open to it- this is more of a venting activity. 

Disclaimer: I love children and it is because I do that I say no- would rather be safe than sorry and who better than the host to know if the space they provide is child friendly.  It is not as if Airbnb does an audit of every listing in their repertoire and decides independently.

Thank you for reading and have a beautiful day! 

Yadira 

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Yadira22 

we had the same problem until Airbnb has introduced "Family collection". Since then we don't receive requests for booking with children bellow 12 y.o. and we are very very happy about it 🙂

I am surprised you are still getting such requests but maybe it's because in your area there aren't so many Airbnbs like in Zagreb

You don't have to decline all those requests, you can ask your guests to withdraw their request and hopefully at least some of them will do it.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

.... you can also tell them that if they don't withdraw their request within 24 hours you will accept it but you can't guarantee for their children's safety because there are stip stairs, balcony blah blah...  and you don't provide cribs, toys, high chair blah blah....

[Yadira22]

Hello @Branka-and-Silvia0 

I thought that with the family collection this would also be fine but apparently not. 

London, UK is very populated and competition should be similar if not more than Zagreb- so I actually imagine this is why I still get requests like this, that and the fact that people do not read. 

I reply to this type of guests with something along the lines - unfortunately due to restrictions placed by our insurance company we cannot accept any guest under the age of 18 years old at time of booking. Furthermore, given how our home has been set up, we believe it is best suited for adults only....

Often they argue back saying how great guests they are and then the 24 hours is nearly up and as it was requested and not enquired, if I continue these dates could be blocked and so forth. Better ways to prevent this would be greatly appreciated.

However, now my worry is when I reported this to Airbnb as to better manage this situation, they insinuated I was being “ageist” and “discriminatory” in my listing and therefore going against their “anti-discrimination policy”- which I appreciate why it’s there and should not be removed but this is not an example of that, This was my biggest concern.

Either way-  thank you for responding and your time 🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Yadira22 

until Airbnb doesn't do something about it, I think the best would be to decorate your rooms with classic erotic artworks. Here are some I would recommend:

Francisco de Goya’s “The Nude Maja”
Katsushika Hokusai’s “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife”
Paul Cezanne’s “Seven Bathers”
Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”
Peter Paul Rubens’s copy of Michelangelo’s “Leda and the Swan”
Egon Schiele’s “Friendship”

Diego Velázquez’s “Rokeby Venus”
....and if that's not enough to convince them then Gustave Courbet’s “L’Origine du monde (The Origin of the World)” certanly will :)))))

[Yadira22]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 

Definitely an idea and having worked as a buyer for the sexual health department of a retailer I am sure I can get a couple of “complimentary” bondage sets, etc... I bet people with children will still try to book *SMH*... thank you for making me smile 🙂 xx

[Taizz0]

Hi fellow hosts!  My guesthouse is called the Blues, Brews, and Bicycle Guesthouse, but I have started getting requests from parents to book a room for their underage kids. By underage, I mean under 21, the legal drinking age in my state. I also thought that someone who is under 21, cannot enter into a legally binding agreement ( like booking a room). Maybe I’m wrong about this?  I contacted AirBnb about this, and it turns out they have no problem with under 21 yr old guests booking.  They suggested I put it in my rules. Just thought I’d let the community know. 

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22  I know you said you were just venting, but I'd leave the "Furthermore, given how our home has been set up, we believe it is best suited for adults only...." out of your response to the guests, just concentrating on no one under the age of 18 being a requirement that is dictated by your insurance company. That way, Airbnb can't accuse you of discrimination based on your own perception of whether it's suitable for children, it's strictly a legal matter. 

"I'm so sorry, but unfortunately I am legally prohibited by my insurance company from having any guests in my home under the age of 18, as stated in my listing information. Therefore I respectfully ask you to withdraw this request and wish you luck in securing one of the many listings that is suitable for families."

[Yadira22]

@Sarah977 Great point- thank you! 🙏🏻

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22 Yeah, there seem to be a lot of parents out there who are more concerned with jumping up and down yelling discrimination than believing a host when they say that the listing is unsafe for children, or reasonably respecting that a listing that's full of high-end furnishings isn't suitable for their rambunctious toddler :-).

[Kath9]

@Yadira22 its so frustrating isnt it? I agree with @Sarah977, just stick to the insurance policy. If people send a request asking if they can bring their children, as @Branka-and-Silvia0 said, ask them to withdraw their request (so it doesn't affect your acceptance rate) and if they don't, tell them you're going to accept on the basis that they are not bringing their children. Then it's up to them to cancel.

[Yadira22]

Hi @Kath9

definitely will but my frustration was with the fact that rather than assist me as I wanted to make it more streamlines for groups of families- Airbnb chose to bring up my listing as being “discriminatory”, I feel as if the rep completely misunderstood and rather than just say- I am sorry would you mind explaining via message your concern as to best help you... he just referred to something I am not. 

When writing the listing I considered families so much that I tried to do some of the tasks a typical family would do, such as bring up a push chair and it was a work out to say the least.

First flight alone are 20 steps.

The stairs are narrow and long- just like it’s not suited for bringing up large objects it’s not suited for someone with a gait issue. This is from a practical side- we had someone who said it was fine and after explaining this several times and sending photos ( he IB’ed but we were happy to provide a full refund if he chose to cancel) he still went with it. It took him 10 mins to get up the stairs and about 20 more to recover- it was so bad that he would not go out unless he had to. Out of appreciation for him I refunded the days he did not stay- so it’s not lack of consideration from my side.  

To put so much love and thought into something and then be called out falsely on it being negative is not nice. No one wants to be called names much less their actions, especially when you are asking for help as to better assist the situation and avoid it completely. 

Honestly felt so disheartened all day. 

Thank you for the advice and have a beautiful day! 

Yadira 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Yadira22  A friend who hosts a private suite in her home accepted a booking and then after she saw a photo of the guests, tried to dissuade them from actually coming, without being specifically impolite. The issue was that the bathroom in the guest suite is quite small and the shower stall is also. She makes this clear in her listing. These guests were extremely "large" to put it nicely and an understatement. There was simply no way they would be able to fit in that shower stall without getting stuck. So she messaged them, without mentioning their weight, but simply re-iterating the size of her shower and suggesting that they might be better off cancelling for a full refund as they might not find the space comfortable. There was also street construction going on, so she was letting every booked guest know that they might have to park a block away and walk to her place, and offering to fully refund if that would be a problem. 

These guests opted to keep the reservation, had to park a block away, and arrived red-faced, huffing and puffing up the front steps and looking like they were about to have a heart attack. They went into the suite, had a look around, checking out the compact bathroom, and cancelled, just as she knew they would. She gave them a full refund, unpromted, just to be done with them.

[Christine615]

That's a boiler plate language - if your unit is restricted, then it's restricted. You're not being arbitrary - you have someone at Airbnb reading from a script.  Why have a box on our listing citing not suitable for children if they can just override that?

Lord this company needs an enema. 😞  Good grief!

Just takes one self-entitled person looking for a bargain to complain, doesn't it. With so many other choices why don't they stay in a hotel?

BTW - I love the idea of putting all kinds of adult oriented erotic material in the apartment if someone brings kids (I allow them, but I love the idea for if I ever need to change the policy) - lol! When they book, just tell them you have a Fifty Shades of Grey decor but haven't updated the photos  🙂

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Yadira22 

one thing is often forgotten....suitable for kids and infants doesn't only mean the place is safe for kids. It also means there is a crib, high chair, place to leave a stroller, plastic dishes, security gate on the top of the stairs, laundry machine etc....

Imagine if you change your house rules now and list it as "safe and suitable for children" and your guests arrive and discover you don't have anything of above... you would certainly get a bad review for false advertising and missing amenities.